Get Britain building ... ponds: Angela Rayner urged to use planning reform to cut red tape on small lakes to help wildlife and combat flooding
- Conservative Environment Network
- May 30
- 1 min read
The South West Devon MP has tabled an amendment to Ms Rayner's Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would give new water bodies with a surface area of less than 0.2 hectares - around a third of a football pitch - 'presumed consent'.
She told MailOnline: 'Where there is water, there is life. Ponds are a fantastic habitat for wildlife, like the common toad and blue-tailed damselfly.
'As well as breathing life into local landscapes, they protect communities from flooding by storing up the excess water during heavy rainfall.
'For too long, new ponds have been bogged down in unnecessary red tape because, somewhat bizarrely, removing the earth to create them can count as engineering or even mining.
'If you are a farmer or land owner who wants to nurture local wildlife and fight flooding, you should not have to navigate the planning in order to do the right thing.'
Kitty Thompson, head of campaigns at the Conservative Environment Network, added: 'Ponds are an effective tool for boosting biodiversity and building climate resilience on our land. Yet creating them can be needlessly difficult under current planning rules.
'That's why this amendment is so important. It removes unnecessary red tape, empowering farmers and landowners to create new habitats for our wildlife and providing vital natural storage for water during periods of heavy rain.
'Giving ponds permitted development rights is a small change that can have a big impact for nature recovery and flood alleviation across the country.
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